Do a Search of this blog
-
Join 21 other subscribers
Started Nov. 16, 2014
- 18,848 hits
-
Recently Posted Articles
- Prose and Cons of new 2016 Bicycle Transportation Plan
- Raised Bicycle Lanes
- A Bicycle Ride on the Stevens Creek Trail in Mountain View
- Cupertino is Mostly about Education
- Incentivizing Employees to Live Close to Work and Reduce Traffic
- Smart Growth for our Communities
- The Deadly Third Rail of Growth
- Free Public Transportation for Cupetino
- Union Pacific Railroad Trail Update
- Mitigating traffic around Tri-School Area
- A Community Mall that Reduces Traffic the Larger it Grows – Thinking Outside the Box
- A Building Moratorium between Developments to Control Growth
- Vallco – Housing for Apple 2 Employees to Mitigate Traffic
- What We Can All Do to Help Save Our Planet
- Need for More Bicycle Trails
Author Archives: Frank Geefay
Free Public Bicycles and Bicycle Share Programs
I have suggested on various posts that the City provide residents with free inexpensive bicycles that they could pick up and leave conveniently at designated kiosks throughout town. I thought I’d elaborate on this idea. However this will not be feasible until the City first makes most of our heavily trafficked streets SAFE to bicycle. Continue reading
Posted in Bicycle, Ideas
Tagged designated kiosks, errand, inexpensive bicycles, smart bicycle kiosk, taken home, tempted to steal
Leave a comment
My Motives for Establishing this Blog
Some might get the wrong impressions that I want to improve our bicycle lanes to suit my purpose. After all aren’t I a frequent biker who simply wants our streets to be safer and easier to bike so I can more easily get around town? First let me start by saying that I am a very casual cyclist. On average I bicycle 1-3 times a week for about 30 min. each time primarily for exercise. Yes I’d love to bicycle around town a lot more but the amount of time and effort I am putting into popularizing biking simple is not worth the effort to simply make biking more available for myself. Continue reading
The Case for Safer Bicycle Lanes
It seems intuitive to me but when talking to seasoned cyclists who use their bikes as their primary mode of transportation some think our streets quite safe. They are fit and have learned how to navigate the busy streets skillfully and safely. So I guess the test of that presumption is to ask if the major streets throughout town would be safe enough for their young children, wives, senior parents, or grandparents to bicycle routinely, assuming they were able to cycle and were not also seasoned cyclists. My objective is to draw many more casual cyclists, especially women, but also people of all ages to bicycle our streets as a means of shopping, dining, going to school, or simply enjoying the joys and exercise of bicycling. Continue reading
Integrated Solution to Solving Growth and Traffic Congestion Problems
I recently watch the TED YouTube “A future beyond traffic gridlock” by Bill Ford of Ford Motor Co. It has relevance to Growth and increased Traffic in our city. I didn’t quit like Fords example of cars on intelligent networks because it lacked innovation in the use of other forms of transportation, but I’d expect that of a top auto executive. More cars, autonomous cars, and networked or not, are that much more space occupying our roads. One must look at even more long-term integrated mobility solutions that occupy far less space, reduce or eliminates the use of energy and production of greenhouse gases, and greatly reduce or eliminate traffic congestion. Continue reading
The Case for Bicycles vs. Minibuses and Uber Cars
Designing a workable transportation system as an alternative to driving everywhere in town is a bit of a daunting challenge here in Cupertino. Its urban sprawl creates public transportation design nightmares because of the complex mazes of small interconnecting streets … Continue reading
Things that Discourage Me from Biking in Cupertino
This website promotes more biking in Cupertino to help solve its traffic and pollution problems by creating a more growth sustainable and green community. It cannot solve all such problems but it can play a valuable role to mitigate them. … Continue reading
Liability Kills Innovation and Solutions
We in Cupertino live in the heart of Innovation, Silicon Valley. Apple has its headquarters and largest R&D facility here. Yet when you ask the city to implement biking safety enhancements which are not mainstream in California they say they … Continue reading
Building a Quaint Bicycle Friendly Community
Building up a Bicycle Community requires the following Bicycle Strategy: Safety, Appeal, [and] Convenience to be developed and implemented. But from a logistical perspective these Strategies can be done in a combination of series and/or parallel actions. But bicycle Safety … Continue reading
Future Cupertino Traffic Projections (Including General Plan Data)
The following is an update of the post Future Cupertino Traffic Projections. This analysis focuses upon the number of Cars in the city and projections of car numbers to 2015 (present time) and 2023 (8 years when the current General Plan … Continue reading
Posted in Considerations
Tagged Apple Campus, car growth, cars from outside city, census data, General Plan, housing units, not sustainable, office space
1 Comment
Davis California is 1st City in U.S. to Install Dutch Designed Protected Bicycle Intersection
The small town of Davis California is a quaint college town where UC Davis is located. For decades bicycles have been one of the primary ways students on a tight budget have gotten around town. So historically bicycles have played … Continue reading
The Reason Bicycles Have No Powerful Advocates
I’ve said in some of my blog posts how energy-efficient, low-cost, non-polluting, very safe, and mechanically simple bicycles fundamentally are. Bicycles are the most Efficient means of Transportation devised by man. They are the panacea for local and intermediate commuting. … Continue reading
Posted in Article, Considerations
Tagged Bicycle, corporate profits, efficient, keeping jobs, low cost, mechanically simple, no polluting, too simple
2 Comments
Letter to City: Future Growth and Traffic in Cupertino
Letter from me to Cupertino Planning Department 8/9/2015 (with minor corrections): Dear Planners of our City, I do not think our City Government has a firm grasp of the future traffic issues in Cupertino based upon the GPA. Let me … Continue reading
Future Cupertino Traffic Projections
[Note: this article has a followup that include data from the latest General Plan numbers for anticipated growth.] Here are some census data from 1990 to 2010 of adults 18 years and older: 1990: 31,533; 2000: 37,083; 2010: 42,227 When … Continue reading
A Recent Post I made to Nextdoor About Bicycles and Cars
The following was a comment I posted on Nextdoor (you must be a member and log in) regarding the city wasting money on signs for bicycle going the wrong direction and the new green bike lanes. I am a 71 … Continue reading
Senate transportation bill includes landmark provision for safer streets
The following was copied from and article from SmartGrowth: Posted on July 30, 2015 by Smart Growth America Senators Schatz, Heller, Franken, and Udall champion provision to address national epidemic of pedestrian fatalities The Senate voted on its final six-year … Continue reading
Safe Streets Act of 2015 – HR2071
“Requires each state to have in effect within two years a law, or each state department of transportation and metropolitan planning organization (MPO) an explicit policy statement, that requires all federally-funded transportation projects, with certain exceptions, to accommodate the safety … Continue reading
Posted in Legislation
Tagged bicyclists, pedestrians, public transit users, safety and convenience
Leave a comment
Smart Growth Is Sustainable Growth
Smart Growth as defined by Wikipedia “is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl. It also advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use … Continue reading
Biking Cupertino 